Obsession Check-In: WEEZER

Tue 11/1/2011

Man... when I decided to split up my "Obsession Check-In" blog post, I thought I would post all three parts in one week. Instead, today I looked up from my drawing table and somehow TWO WEEKS had elapsed. I guess Home Stretch Fever has warped my sense of time...

ANYWAY, let's talk about Weezer, shall we? Things have been pretty quiet on the Weezer front, after their 2009-2010 burst of productivity (during which they released FOUR albums). They are still touring a lot, but it sounds like it will be a little while before their tenth studio album.

In a recent interview Rivers said that the third volume of his home recordings should be coming out soon (it actually says "this year," but it seems to me that time is running out...) WHENEVER it comes out, it is going to be called "Alone III: The Pinkerton Years" (!!!) and there will also be a BOOK released at the same time called "The Pinkerton Diaries" (!!?!)

Needless to say, I am EXTREMELY excited about this album/book combo. It seems inevitable that Alone III will finally provide all of the missing tracks of Songs From the Black Hole. I can't wait to listen to the whole thing!

Rivers posted a preview of the book which looks to contain his notes, diary entries, mood charts, sheet music, drawings and all kinds of other stuff. It's going to be incredible to get a glimpse into his creative process, ESPECIALLY his creative process during the time in his life when he created one of the greatest albums of all time.

In that same recent interview Rivers also talks about how Weezer is going to be a little more deliberate with their next album. I know a lot of people weren't crazy about their most recent efforts (you can read my original posts on each here: Hurley, Pinkerton: Deluxe & Death to False Metal and Raditude). But I have been listening to this stuff a lot lately and I think that when all is said and done, 2009-2010 will prove to be a very important phase in Weezer's development. They did a lot of experimenting - some of it was a little too far out there, but some of it was really great. I have hope that they'll take that good stuff and move forward with it. As ever, I'm excited to see what they come up with next!

Next obsession check-in: THE MUPPETS

4 comments on this entry

I love this article. Im a =w= for life since I saw them open for Lush in Boston in 1994. I will however say, Raditude, Hurley and DTFM are really great albums that I think in time will be looked at like Green is now or maybe Pinkerton 10 years ago?

Michael McCarthy Nov02

Alec! It's Eric from Bellingham! I don't think I've seen you since '97. Speaking of '97, I have that photo of you & Rivs right after he signed your guitar. I hope you have a copy (via Allison) as it's a classic.